Andrew Lamberty, the Pimlico dealer of the C4 Four Rooms television series, antique dealer to the stars and royalty, and James Perkins, millionaire connoisseur of the erstwhile house music raves and extant company Fantazia, and latterly owner of Aynhoe Park in Oxfordshire, are having a joint désemballage at Christie's South Kensington on Tuesday 9 October.
 
Christie's is delighted, if not ecstatic, at the sale which it describes as a modern Grand Tour. Aynhoe Park, a pile of Jacobean and Carolean origins, was extended and decorated in the late baroque Italian taste in the early 1700s by Thomas Archer, an early roman Grand Tourist, and then again in the early 1800s by John Soane, a later roman and early greek Grand Tourist - and a moulded plaster fanatic. The sale catalogue moves stochastically through Roman reliefs, V&A and Metropolitan Museum casts some by Brucciani, and fetishist and other modern photos and paraphernalia.
 
Lamberty trades on risk, charm and reassuring expense. "As you progress in your career, you naturally progress to buying rarer and more expensive things," he said [Daily Telegraph], "because you're drawn to greater beauty. A deal where perhaps 10 years ago you might buy something for £5,000 and sell it for £7,000, that would really excite you, now it doesn't any more. Now you have to spend six figures and think, 'Oh my God, it's going to clean me out if I don't get this right.' It's the tightrope walk. You're doing something higher and more dangerous but the thrill is more enjoyable."
 
James Perkins of Aynhoe Park said that he began collecting as a teenager. "I will happily admit to being a compulsive collector," he said. In his essay Living With Plaster Casts in a tome [see link below] on plaster casts, he writes:

l was only fifteen when I discovered plaster casts. I had accompanied my mother to a workshop in Cheltenham, where l saw Mike Aston [some of whose works are in the Christie's sale], a restorer and moulder, pull a newly made bust of ApolIo from its mould. Interested not only in the final product but also the casting process, I spent the next six months saving my money to purchase the bust. Sadly. this first purchase, which marked the start of what would become a lifelong passion for plaster, left my possession as a last minute wedding present for a friend who had long admired it. As admirers of plaster are few and far between, l could not deny such a request, especially for such an occasion. But I was consoled by the realisation that my friend's wish for the bust suggested that the aesthetic appeal of plaster casts was still alive, though in need of a little reinvigorating.
 
While my career path has led me from couriering antiques to founding a dance music record label and hosting large scale music events to my current property business involving landmark British buildings my passion for plaster Itas been steadfast. My company GL5O Properties functions on the belief that through contemporary renovation and creative modernisation Britain's historic buildings could be restored to meet both the requirements of the past and that of modern day living. I came to realise how plaster casts could transform existing architecture - - through cornices, pilasters, capitals and other architectural and sculptural decoration. Believing such an aesthetic to be unique to my own tastes it is easy to imagine the surprise and exhilaration I felt when l happened upon Sir John Soane's Museum in London for the first time. There, I witnessed the world of a kindred spirit, who understood the decorative qualities and various uses of plaster. Plaster made Sir John Soane's house the memorable experience it is, and it set the tone for how I looked to live with my own collection.
 
My current home, Aynhoe Park, on the Oxfordshire Northamptonshire border, was built in the seventeenth century and renovated by Sir John Soane in the late eighteenth century. This link with Soane certainly affected the way in which I exhibit my casts. which can be seen in the layout of my Soane Staircase.

 
Reproductions of some the cast collection have been for sale at The Conran Shop.
 
Lamberty and Perkins are great friends. "We share a love of beautiful and luxurious objects," said Andrew Lamberty, "and together we have watched our collections grow. The dramatic backdrop provided by James' home, Aynhoe Park, is the perfect stage to present our combined collections for sale, and as market leader we believe Christie's is the perfect partner and location for the auction."
 
Adrian Hume-Sayer of Christie's commented, "It is impossible not to be charmed by Aynhoe Park's setting and architectural character, particularly as James' remarkable collection so perfectly inhabits Sir John Soane's dramatic interiors. A pair of colossal Greek centaurs from the collection of the Metropolitan Museum, New York greets visitors in the pillared hall, setting the tone for what is to be found beyond. When Soane remodelled the house in 1800-01, he could scarcely have envisaged that the spaces he created would one day host such a dynamic yet fitting collection."
 
Those of a gossipy disposition, clearly not SalvoNEWS, may be want to know that Andrew Lamberty employed the man who became Greg Barker's lover, for whom Mr. Barker left his wife and three children. Greg Barker, MP for Bexhill, is now the Minister for Climate Change in David Cameron's cabinet and was the man who arranged Cameron's famous green pre-election photo shoot in the arctic on a dog sledge with huskies.